Friday letters to the editor

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, January 20, 2005

Quilts are everywhere

To the editor:

In our letter Dec. 4, Midland Quiltmakers asked if anyone was going to Capetown, South Africa, and, if so, would they take quilts to the only childrens hospital in Africa. Paul and Tracy Diefenbach responded and were leaving on vacation Jan. 11 to Capetown and volunteered. We met at the Church of the Brethren one Saturday, rolled, tied and stuffed 109 quilts in two duffle bags and one box. On Jan. 13, they arrived in Capetown and were met by the Friends of the Childrens Hospital. They will bring stories and pictures when they return to Midland.

Matt Schaller, visiting home for the holidays, took 16 quilts in a duffel bag to distribute to the poor in Mexico. George and Jeanne Schaller are leaving Feb. 14 to work in a Mexican orphanage and will take 24 or more quilts with them.

Henry Bontrager, Ovid, took 20 quilts to remote villages in Guatamala in early January. Dr. Bill DeWitt, Grand Haven, took 20 quilts on a trip to Honduras and Steve Bruneau, Grand Haven, left this month to build houses in the mountains of Honduras. We donated 100 quilts for his group to distribute. Henry and Steve travel yearly to Honduras and Guatamala to build simple houses for the poor.

Fifteen quilts and three afghans were delivered to DeVos Hospital, Grand Rapids. Nicki Beckwiths daughter-in-law, a nurse, told us about a young girl, dying, and needed a quilt for comfort. Some of the units would not share with her. An old playroom was converted for young people on dialysis  lap robes were needed, as when the blood is returned after cleaning from the machine, it is cold. Thanks to the Homer Methodist ladies for continuously making afghans for us with donated yarn. Sr. Francis Ryan, D.C., Chicago, said 33 afghans were the only gifts for 33 patients at Christmas for patients with AIDS and suffering from neuropathy at an AIDS Hospice. Besides warmth, it said someone cared!

Midland Quiltmakers meet at the Church of the Brethren, 1717 E. Sugnet, Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon. For more information, call Judy Harris, 631-2026; Yvonne Cornell, 631-4556; or Faye Tennant, 631-6569.

Judy Harris

Midland

Whose rights are threatened?

To the editor:

No one takes greater offense than do African-Americans when folks such as Janea Little offer the tired and false assertion that homosexual behavior is the moral, legal, and social equivalent of having been born with dark skin.

In October, I had the privilege of speaking in African-American churches in Pontiac and Detroit and also of driving Dr. Alveda King  niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  around Michigan to speak and campaign in favor of the Marriage Protection Amendment, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters.

When audience members asked how her uncle Martin would have felt about attempts by homosexual activists to redefine marriage, Alveda simply reminded them that long before he became a nationally-known civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. was first and foremost a conservative southern Baptist pastor.

MLKs daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, also last month led a faith-based march in Atlanta in support of protecting one-man, one-woman marriage from homosexual activists political agenda. Of course, Rev. Bernice King was criticized by people like Ms. Little, who try to put a "civil rights" mask on that agenda.

Whose rights are truly at risk?

In Sweden last year, a Pentecostal pastor was jailed for one month for preaching a sermon in his own church in which he said homosexual behavior was a sin and a threat to community values and health.

Last year in Ireland, Catholic priests were threatened with six months in jail if they read (from their own pulpits) a Vatican statement reaffirming support for one-man, one-woman marriage and declaring homosexual behavior "evil."

In Philadelphia right now, four Christians await trial  facing multiple felonies such as "ethnic intimidation" and up to 47 years in prison  for peacefully exercising their First Amendment free speech right to attend a public "gay rights" rally and read from the Bible to express their opinion that homosexual behavior is wrong.

Thats what used to happen to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., too, when he marched and spoke the truth. (He always quoted from the Bible too.)

Protecting and preserving one-man, one-woman marriage for our children is not "discrimination," and if anyone needs protection these days, its those who dare publicly disagree with homosexual activists attempts to hide the radical nature of their demands behind the legacy of a true civil rights movement led by the African-American church.